About

Kitty Connolly – Executive Director

About Kitty Connolly

Before joining the Foundation, Kitty was Manager of Botanical Interpretation at the Huntington Library, Art Collections, and Botanical Gardens in San Marino, California. There, she oversaw educational programs ranging from professional development to school programs.

A major focus of Kitty’s work was interpreting the Huntington’s collections through exhibitions. She was co-curator and project manager of When They Were Wild: Recapturing California’s Wildflower Heritage, a joint project with the Theodore Payne Foundation and Rancho Santa Ana Botanic Garden. She was the Co-Principal Investigator and project manager for Plants are up to Something, winner of the 2007 American Association of Museum’s Grand Prize in Excellence in Exhibitions. She extended her exhibition work through directing the Institute for Museums and Library Services-supported “Exhibiting Skills,” a three-year long professional-development program that trained 50 public garden staff in the interpretation of living plant collections.

Kitty has served as a director-at-large for the American Public Gardens Association, co-chaired the 2004 Pacific Regional Meeting of the APGA, and co-organized two Association of Science and Technology Center Roundtable for Advancing the Profession. She is editor-at-large for Exhibitionist, the journal of the American Alliance of Museum; and has written on informal education, most notably “Interpreting Gardens to Visitors” in Public Garden Management. She holds a B.S. in environmental zoology from Ohio University and a M.A. in geography from UCLA.

With enthusiasm, we welcome Kitty as our new Executive Director – and invite you to meet her. Please visit our nursery, take classes and attend our upcoming spring events. Kitty looks forward to sharing her background, getting to know you better and engaging with the TPF community.

Be a good Californian; be loyal to your own state and keep your
landscape Californian. - Theodore Payne

Theodore Payne Foundation

The Theodore Payne Foundation for Wild Flowers and Native Plants is a 501(c)3 nonprofit organization dedicated to the understanding, preservation and use of California Native Wild Flowers and Plants.